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ODI Staff

Randy Kochevar

Managing Project Director, EDC

Director, ODI

Randy Kochevar has expertise in marine biology and conservation, promotion of data literacy, Web development, research, and science communications. He brings passion for science and conservation—as well as a proven ability to make complex scientific concepts engaging and comprehensible for diverse audiences—to his R&D of innovative online educational resources for teachers, students, and the public. In the Oceans of Data Institute, Kochevar leads a team that is working to transform K–16 science education to support students' entry into a world of big data through instructional design, research, and strategic partnerships with education and industry leaders. Kochevar shares his expertise in helping scientific research programs design and implement effective educational and outreach programs at the national conferences of organizations such as the American Geophysical Union. Kochevar earned his BS in Biology from Colorado College and obtained his PhD in Deep-Sea Physiology from University of California-Santa Barbara.

Ruth Krumhansl

Principal Scientist, EDC

Founder, ODI

Ruth Krumhansl is an expert in curriculum development, education research, earth science, science teaching, and applied science. Her work has a special focus on the design of Internet-based tools that bring authentic scientific data into K–16 classrooms. Krumhansl leads research that is advancing the field's knowledge of how students learn to work with data and is drawing upon findings to design innovative instructional resources that help teachers foster students’ data literacy, build their capacity to work with complex datasets, and support their mastery of essential tools and techniques. She is the principal investigator of the NSF-funded Ocean Tracks College Edition study. Ruth is lead author of EDC Earth Science, a full-year earth science course for high school stressing rigorous, inquiry-oriented learning, which was published by LAB-AIDS in 2014. In collaboration with SRI International and NASA, she contributed to the design of websites that allow teachers to access NASA’s remotely sensed Earth observation mission data. Before joining EDC, Krumhansl was a high school science teacher and department coordinator, a chief scientist and senior project manager in environmental consulting on Superfund sites, and a petroleum exploration geologist. Her career in applied science immersed her in the search for patterns in complex geospatial data, providing a foundation for her current interest and work in preparing students to live in a data-intensive world. She has a BA in Geology from Bucknell University and an MS in Environmental Science from Antioch New England Graduate School.

Stephanne Ebsen-Clark

Administrative Manager, ODI

As ODI’s administrative manager, Stephanne supports all aspects of the Institute’s activities, including scheduling, budget management, logistical coordination, clerical support and acting as ODI’s first point of contact. Stephanne has a background in program management, operations, event management, and administration. She managed a $3M, multi-year, international leadership development program, facilitating all logistics and assembling educational material for each workshop on a global scale. She has had 15 years of experience working with C-suite executives in high-touch business culture, working with a vast array of Fortune 500 companies in the consulting and software industries. Stephanne has a Master’s degree in Education from Cambridge College.

Amy Busey

Research Associate, EDC

Researcher, ODI

Amy Busey leads and contributes to a diverse array of initiatives that support teachers in ensuring students’ STEM proficiency and school, college, and career success. She brings significant experience in quantitative and qualitative research, strategic dissemination, and promotion of knowledge utilization. Her most recent work is deepening understanding of effective strategies to foster students’ data literacy and bridge STEM education research and practice. As a member of EDC’s Oceans of Data Institute (ODI) team, Busey was a primary author of ODI’s Visualizing Oceans of Data report—a groundbreaking effort to provide guidelines to support interface and tool designers in bridging cyberinfrastructure to classrooms, enabling students to work with large, high-quality scientific datasets. She plays a key role in ODI’s Ocean Tracks project, which developed and tested powerful Web-based visualization and analysis tools derived from state-of-the-art knowledge about how to support student inquiry with data, and is currently engaged in related collaborative work with the Concord Consortium and the University of Minnesota on the CODAP (Common Online Data Analysis Platform). Busey is the lead author of the article “Harvesting a Sea of Data” published in the Summer 2015 issue of The Science Teacher. Busey holds a BS in Psychology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an EdM in Mind, Brain, and Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Bill Tally

Managing Project Director, EDC

PI, Zoom In! Learning Science with Data

Bill Tally leads education Research and Development that deepens understanding of how the strategic use of digital tools can make learning more rigorous, meaningful, and engaging. He brings deep expertise in interdisciplinary learning, the digital humanities, formative research, historical studies, and the sociology of education—as well as experience configuring digital archives to enable students, teachers, and the public to do authentic historical inquiry. Tally is the principal investigator of the Zoom In! Learning Science with Data project, funded by NSF. Bill received a BA in psychology from the University of California at Santa Cruz and an MA in liberal studies (with an emphasis on American cultural history) from the Graduate Faculty of the New School for Social Research. He holds a PhD in sociology from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, where his dissertation examined children’s and parents’ use of the Web in low- and middle-income homes.

Colin Hill

Intern, EDC

Curriculum Research and Development Intern

Colin Hill is a senior at Yale University where he is pursuing a BS in Statistics and Data Science with a minor in Education Studies. His interests fall at the intersection of those two fields, particularly as it relates to topics of social justice. In addition to his work as a teaching assistant for Yale's Department of Statistics and Data Science, Colin worked with Teach for America last fall to develop and teach a 2-hour workshop about using data literacy as a tool for community organizing, and has taught a number of hands-on "crash courses" on data literacy to middle-schoolers and high-schoolers around the New Haven area. As a summer intern at the NYC office, Colin works closely with the Oceans of Data Institute and other stakeholders on various projects which aim to promote data literacy, including Zoom In! Learning Science with Data and the NASA-funded Real World, Real Science project.

Erin Bardar

Senior Curriculum/Instructional Design Associate, EDC

Curriculum Developer, ODI

Erin Bardar is leading the Ocean Tracks College Edition curriculum development team. She is also project director and curriculum team lead for EDC’s part in the NASA-funded Real World Real Science project. Erin brings 10 years of experience in Earth and space science curriculum development, teacher professional development, and education research to her ODI work. She holds an ScB in Physics from Brown University and a PhD in Astronomy Education Research from Boston University.

Ginger Fitzhugh

Senior Research Associate, EDC

Researcher, NASA GMRI project

Ginger Fitzhugh brings 13 years of experience evaluating educational projects and programs. Fitzhugh has expertise in evaluating informal and formal education programs in K-12 and higher education settings, and currently specializes in evaluating efforts designed to increase diversity in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math). She also has an interest in applying systems principles to evaluation, and recently served as the Program Chair of the American Evaluation Association’s Systems in Evaluation Topical Interest Group. She brings a strong commitment to the use of research and evaluation as a means of strengthening programs and services for educators and young people. Fitzhugh received a BA from Swarthmore College, and a Master of Management from the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University.

Jackie DeLisi

Research Scientist, EDC

Researcher, NASA GMRI Project

Jackie DeLisi brings nearly 20 years of experience in the field of education as both a researcher and a practitioner. Her primary research interests include understanding the intersections between school organizations, pedagogy, and students’ adoption of scientific and engineering practices. Her work also focuses on instrument development, including determining psychometric properties, to measure school, teacher, and student outcomes. DeLisi is a co-author of the report Visualizing Oceans of Data: Educational Interface Design. She also served as a researcher on the Ocean Tracks project. DeLisi earned a BA in Chemistry from New York University, an MA in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Colorado at Denver, and an EdD in Administration, Training, and Policy Studies from Boston University."

Jessica Sickler

Researcher & Evaluator, ODI

Jessica Sickler is an experienced evaluator, researcher, and educator with more than 10 years of experience studying learning across the spectrum of informal learning environments. One area of professional interest is the intersection of formal education settings with real-world resources (such as scientific data or museum collections), and how strategies from informal learning settings can enhance classroom environments. She has worked with ODI on several projects, including Ocean Tracks, Ocean Tracks College Edition, and Real World Real Science. Sickler received a B.A. in Environmental Analysis & Policy from Boston University and an M.S.Ed. in Museum Education from Bank Street College of Education. She also runs her own evaluation and research firm, J. Sickler Consulting.

Joe Ippolito

Senior Project Director, EDC

Project Director, Creating Pathways for Big Data Careers

Joe Ippolito’s 16-year career at EDC has centered on the design and implementation of career-focused education programs. He has directed several U.S. Department of Labor and U.S. Department of Justice projects that have provided comprehensive career training and support services to at-risk high school youth, out-of-school youth, and adjudicated youth and adults. Most recently, his work has focused on developing tools that define and help measure the performance of newly emerging occupations. He received a BA in Religious Studies from Duke University and an MA in Religious Studies from the Divinity School of the University of Chicago.

John Parris

Senior Researcher and Designer, EDC

Producer and Designer, Zoom In! Learning Science with Data

John Parris is highly experienced in educational media, research and evaluation, instructional design, multimedia production, and project management. He contributes his expertise to a wide array of research projects and development of prototypes and products for science, social studies, and interdisciplinary curricula. John is currently a producer and designer for Zoom In! Learning Science with Data, an NSF- funded project to create lessons to build high-school students’ skills in using data to investigate and explain significant problems in biology and earth science. Originally Funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation as a history education tool, Zoom In! helps students read authentic primary documents, compare their perspectives, and write their own historical arguments, helping them build literacy and historical thinking skills required by the Common Core Standards. EDC launched Zoom In! as a free, research-based, online tool in 2015. The tool also provides embedded professional development resources for teachers. Prior to joining EDC, Parris worked at the Children’s Television Workshop (now Sesame Workshop) and at Bank Street College of Education, designing educational software and serving as a technical adviser to projects integrating new technologies into formal and informal educational settings.

Josephine Louie

Research Scientist, EDC

Co-PI, Ocean Tracks

Josephine Louie has extensive experience conducting research in education and social science, with a background in quantitative and qualitative research methods. Louie is the co-principal investigator of ODI’s Ocean Tracks and the project and research director of Ocean Tracks College Edition, two R&D projects that are creating and studying an online learning resource that provides student-friendly access to large-scale professionally collected marine biology and oceanographic data, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). Louie received an AB from Harvard College, a master’s in city planning from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and an EdM and EdD from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Joyce Malyn-Smith

Managing Project Director, EDC

PI, Creating Pathways for Big Data Careers

Joyce Malyn-Smith is a national expert on STEM career and workforce development with a deep knowledge of how learners develop skills in formal and informal settings to prepare for productive and rewarding work life. She has a special interest in the innovation economy and how technology and informal learning can spark creativity and cultivate and sustain interest in STEM careers. She received a BS from Universidad Interamericana in Puerto Rico, an MEd from Boston State Teacher’s College, and an EdD in Bilingual Education Leadership and Career Education from Boston University, where she was a U.S. Department of Education Fellow.

Julianne Mueller-Northcott

Teacher Advisor, ODI

Julianne Mueller-Northcott was part of the development team for the Ocean Tracks interface, which has allowed high school students to investigate ocean-related questions using authentic tracking data from marine species. Currently, she is part of the curriculum development team for Ocean Tracks: College Edition, which is designing investigations to help undergraduate students build data analysis skills through scientific data investigations. In addition to her contributions to the Ocean Tracks project, Julianne has been teaching science (living systems, earth systems and marine biology) at Souhegan High School in Amherst, NH, since 2000.

Kim Kastens

Advisor, ODI

Kim Kastens, an oceanographer and geoscience education researcher, served as distinguished scholar in EDC’s Learning and Teaching Division and principal scientist for the Oceans of Data Institute prior to becoming an advisor. Kastens worked closely on ODI’s Big-Data-Enabled Specialist Profile, and wrote the subsequent white paper Data Use in the Next Generation Science Standards. She is the lead author of Thinking Big: Transitioning Your Students from Working with Small Student-Collected Data Sets towards Big Data, which lays out ODI’s proposed learning progression towards proficiency with large, professionally collected data sets around ill-structured problems. Kastens brings more than 20 years of experience working at the nexus of science and education. She holds a doctorate from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and a bachelor’s degree from Yale University. She currently serves a special research scientist at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University.

Kira Krumhansl

Research Associate, ODI

Kira Krumhansl is co-PI on the Zoom In! Teaching Science with Data project. She is also the science coordinator for the Ocean Tracks College Edition project, and worked previously in this role for the Ocean Tracks Phase 1 project. As science coordinator, she acts as a bridge between scientists and educators, and works on curriculum development, research, and dissemination. She also worked on the Visualizing Oceans of Data Knowledge Status Report, and is participating in a number of other development projects in ODI. She has a background in marine ecology, having completed a PhD at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. She is also currently a postdoctoral researcher at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, British Columbia. Her scientific research focuses on understanding the role of humans in altering kelp forest ecosystems.

Leana Nordstrom

Project Associate, EDC

Communications Lead, ODI

Leana Nordstrom is the communications lead of the Oceans of Data Institute. In this role, she works with a team to disseminate the work of the many projects that make up ODI’s body of work. Nordstrom has worked at Education Development Center, Inc., for five years focusing on K–12 STEM education in both informal and formal settings. Prior to EDC, Nordstrom worked for Public Interest GRFX, the in-house communications department that designed and managed the publications and websites for nonprofit organizations such as Environment America, US PIRG, and Green Corps. She also served as an environmental education extension agent in Senegal, W. Africa for the Peace Corps. Nordstrom holds a BA in Environmental Science.

Libby Boghossian

Curriculum Designer, EDC

Curriculum Designer, Exploring Urban Mobility

Libby is an experienced educator with over 10 years of experience in teaching middle and high school science, in addition to coaching rowing. Currently, she is developing Urban Mobility curriculum for the Exploring Urban Mobility: Using Data to Solve Problems of the Future project. Her work prompts students to develop data literacy skills by examining and analyzing emergency evacuation data from Hurricane Katrina. Libby holds an ScB in Human Biology from Brown University and an EdM from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Lynn Goldsmith

Distinguished Scholar, EDC

Advisor, ODI

Lynn Goldsmith brings more than 30 years of research experience to the study of learning and teaching. She has directed research for curriculum development projects, studied professional development for teachers, investigated principals’ instructional leadership for mathematics, examined the role that emotions play in learning, and explored possible relationships between arts education and mathematical reasoning. Goldsmith has also written about mathematics education for the research community, practitioners, and parents. Goldsmith currently directs research into authentic art-making as a context for making STEM connections. In addition, she is investigating approaches to integrating computational thinking into elementary-level mathematics and science classrooms. She directed the research on EDC’s Young Mathematicians K–5 curriculum, supervised the research component of several professional development projects at EDC, including Turning to the Evidence, Supporting Staff Developers, and Formative Assessment in the Mathematics Classroom: Engaging Teachers and Students (FACETS), all funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). With colleagues from Boston College and Massachusetts College of Art and Design, she investigated the connection between arts and geometric thinking and is currently collaborating on a project with Artists for Humanity, an after-school workforce development program for high school students, to infuse STEM thinking into the design and development of works of art. Goldsmith has also collaborated with colleagues at Mills College, Syracuse University, and WestEd. Goldsmith's recent publications include Mathematics teachers’ learning: a conceptual framework and synthesis of research, A framework for the facilitation of teachers’ analysis of video, and Examining Mathematics Practice Through Classroom Artifacts (co-authored with Nanette Seago). She has also authored or coauthored articles for parents and practitioners about math education, The Fostering Algebraic Thinking Toolkit: A Guide for Staff Development, and several guides for selecting rigorous curriculum materials (Choosing a Standards-Based Mathematics Curriculum and the series Guiding Curriculum Decisions for Middle Grades—for language arts, mathematics, and science). She has also written about child prodigies, including coauthoring Nature's Gambit: Child Prodigies and the Development of Human Potential. Before joining EDC, Goldsmith held research positions at Tufts University and TERC and taught at Middlebury College. She received a BA in psychology from Yale University and a PhD from the Institute of Child Development at the University of Minnesota. She did postdoctoral studies at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Megan Silander

Senior Research Associate, EDC

Co-PI, Zoom In! Learning Science with Data

Megan Silander conducts research that generates new insights into effective preK–12 education policies and programs. Her research interests include school and instructional improvement, accountability and data use in schools, and out-of-school–time learning. Her current research focuses on the use of digital tools and media to increase capacity to support children's learning, both in and out of school. Megan is the co-Principal Investigator of the National Science Foundation-funded Zoom In! Learning Science with Data, a project that will design, develop, and test digital curricula and tools that build high school students’ skills in using data to investigate and explain significant problems in biology and earth science. Megan holds a PhD in education policy from Teachers College, Columbia University; an EdM in international education policy from Harvard Graduate School of Education; and a BA in linguistics from Pomona College. Prior to joining CCT, she conducted research at the Consortium for Policy Research in Education at Teachers College, and served as a policy advisor for a member of the Los Angeles Board of Education.

Patrick McDeed

Research Assistant, ODI

Patrick interned with the Oceans of Data Institute from January-August 2016 and was involved in the curriculum research and development efforts on various ODI projects. He is currently continuing that work as a part-time research assistant for ODI, while also pursuing a Bachelor’s of Science in Mathematics, with a focus in Secondary Education, at Northeastern University. Prior to interning with ODI, Patrick worked as a data analyst.

Virgil Zetterlind

Lead Technology Developer, Ocean Tracks

Virgil Zetterlind is the lead technology developer for the Ocean Tracks effort and has been building 'big data' applications with a focus on remote sensing and mapping since the earliest days of Google Earth. As co-founder of Conserve.IO, Virgil spearheaded development of the NOAA Whale Alert mobile application - one of the 1st government efforts to leverage crowd-sourced animal sightings for conservation and now a family of applications in support of Whales, Butterflies, Sharks, and more worldwide. He is currently the manager of protectedSeas.net - a focused effort to raise awareness of and compliance with Marine Protected Areas through mapping and monitoring. A US Air Force veteran, Virgil holds a Masters Degree in Electrical Engineering from the Air Force Institute of Technology.